Arirang

About

“We wanted to shake things up,” SUGA tells Apple Music. “We discussed at length about doing something very new, especially for this album.” Like most of their record-breaking career, BTS’s group hiatus didn’t have much precedent. RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook—seven of the biggest stars on the planet—took the break in June 2022 in order to complete mandatory military service, as all able-bodied Korean men must do. “Enlistment era” is an inevitable phase for any successful K-pop boy group, but BTS’s departure as one of the biggest musical acts on the planet was more akin to Elvis Presley’s drafting into the US Army at the height of his fame than any other contemporary K-pop happening. <i>ARIRANG</i>, a 14-track album grounded in Korean cultural identity, is the idol group’s return to the spotlight after almost four year. Written and recorded over months of LA-based songwriting sessions in 2025, the album includes a bevy of Western producers and songwriter, including Mike WiLL Made-It, Flume, El Guincho, Diplo, and Ryan Tedder, but finds its center—and title inspiration—in a 600-year-old folk song about the longing, sorrow, and resilience of the Korean people. “It was all about showcasing who we are, our identity and our root,” j-hope tells Apple Music. “Arirang” is used as a framing for BTS’s deeper cultural roots in the midst of global collaboration, but it is also literally present. “We are all Koreans and we are proud of where we came from, and I think the song has lyrics and melodies [that] are very universal,” says RM. On the album opener “Body to Body,” a percussive statement about the power of “skin to skin” stadium concert togetherne, the beat gradually shifts from electric to acoustic as a <i>pansori</i>-style performance of “Arirang” comes in and then fades out again. The interplay links BTS’s modern work to a much older Korean tradition—a sentiment that carries over into the album’s other track, even when they are not so explicitly Korean in their sound. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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